


Shake It Up

by Missy



Category: Laverne & Shirley (TV)
Genre: Autumn, Bathing in Food, Character Study, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Humor, Kisses, Laundry, Mourning, Moving, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, New Year's Resolutions, Not Quite Splosh, Offers and Entreaties, One Night Stands, Penis In Vagina Sex, Pudding, Rhythm Method, Romance, Set During Canonical Timeskip, Spring, Summer, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:35:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: Lenny's New Year Resolution sends him on an adventure - through the seasons, through his friendships, changing his fate and his life as Milwaukee enters his rear-view mirror.
Relationships: Andrew "Squiggy Squiggman/Original Female Character(s), Laverne DeFazio/Lenny Kosnowski, Shirley Feeney/Carmine Ragusa
Comments: 10
Kudos: 6





	1. New Year's Eve, 1963

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Futsin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Futsin/gifts).



“And that is my New Year promise,” Squiggy said, taking another slug of beer. “Two chicks at the same time.”

Lenny stared at him, his chin propped up in his palm, elbow of his good dress-up jacket scraping the sticky Pizza Bowl table. “Squig, you can’t even talk one chick into taking you out, forget two of ‘em.”

“Well, ain’t you a wet electric blanket?” sniffed Squiggy. “What got up your nose?”

“We’re sitting here alone with no dates in New Years Eve,” he pointed out. All around them, people were celebrating drunkenly, but the two of them were firmly otherwise alone. Squiggy shrugged. Lenny sat back, a gloomy look on his face. “Nothing.” 

“Oh yeah?” Squiggy sneered. He shot a look at Laverne, who was dancing happily with a fireman named Bobby – an old friend of her tragically dead almost-fiancé Randy. “If I had to guess, I’d guess the thing up your snoot was Laverne-shaped.”

“Shut up,” Lenny glowered. Then he sighed at Squiggy’s probing expression. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Len, you gotta stop chasing after her like a tiny, horny cat. Do what I do with Shirl. Make her come to you.”

“Huh. Maybe that is a good idea.” He looked up and found her on the dance floor. Laverne was doing the hitchhiker, which wasn’t exactly a sexy or romantic dance, but Lenny’s attention was still riveted by her hips. Lenny met her eyes, and Laverne shot him a grin. He smiled back, but didn’t get up, or ask to cut in. “Thanks Squig. You always know what to say.”

“That’s ‘cause I was born with a lead tongue. So you think Betty’s got anyone who’d take me on?” Squiggy asked.

Lenny sighed and finished his beer with renewed purpose. It was 1964 now. The world was going to change. He wasn't going to spend another New Year's Eve like this. And he was going to make new, and good, things happen.


	2. Spring

It took forever for spring to come to Wisconsin. But finally, as April passed into May, the trees began to bloom, the nights turned warmer, and Lenny wasn’t afraid he’d freeze to death in a random gutter while Squiggy had fun with one of his dates.

On this particular spring Friday, Lenny had spent most of the afternoon helping Mrs. Babbish clean the gutters and put out flower pots. He’d learned a long time ago that it didn’t hurt to be nice to his landlady - because he genuinely liked being nice to her, and because being nice to her usually resulted in a couple of bucks getting knocked off their rent every month. By the time he was finished his sweatshirt and jeans were dirty, and between those clothes and his work coveralls Lenny had a load of laundry to do. He really didn’t expect to find Laverne in the basement doing her own stuff, but there she was, sitting on a bench and flipping a magazine as her underwear spun around.

“Hey Laverne,” he said casually. She was wearing tight blue shorts and a blue checkered blouse tied up above her belly button, and he didn’t know if he should look at her legs, her butt or her boobs but he wanted to see all of her at the same time. Lenny saved himself an argument or a swat, and looked into her eyes instead.

“Hey, Len,” she retorted. “I’ll have my stuff out in a minute.”

“Gotcha,” Lenny said. He sat down beside her. “You home all night, too?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Bobby’s out of town all week, and Carmine's busy at the studio. We don't got anything to do the whole weekend. Shirl said something about trying to ‘improve our mind with study’ but I’m planning on Sky King, Scooter Pies and True Confessions all afternoon tomorrow.”

“Thattagirl,” Lenny said. 

“Got any plans?”

“Staying in,” he said. “I think I pulled something helping Mrs. B with the gutters.” He rubbed his right shoulder, and she instinctively reached over and rubbed at it. He felt something inside of himself melt and his mouth fell open, but Laverne made no remark upon his expression.

“So’s Squig getting any closer to ‘climbing the mountain’?” Lenny bit back a grin at Laverne’s tone as she sat back. Naturally Squiggy had spent the winter trying to find a girl to hook him up with a “really stacked pair of friends” or a girl and “her really open-minded sister,” but he hadn’t gotten very far. His on and off girlfriend, Francine, had recently joined in the quest.

“Nah,” he said. “He and Francine are looking for someone, but I dunno if it’ll happen.” Lenny knew he wouldn’t be invited into the room, since he was well aware of the fact that Francine thought he was repulsive.

“Well, tell Squig I’m rooting for him,” Laverne said.

“Really?” Lenny asked.

She shook her head. “You’re such a big dope,” she declared.

“Thanks. I needed the reminder,” he said, crossing his eyes and snorting. Laverne shook her head. She slung a strong arm around his shoulder and he started thinking about baseball season, about running the bases and watching Laverne's legs pump...

He crossed his legs, quickly and discreetly. "Yep. Nothing better and nowhere to go,” Lenny said. He watched the machine violently vibrate, hoping it wouldn’t fall over like it did the last time. That had flooded the whole building that time.

The washing machine dinged, and Laverne got up and dumped her load into the dryer. She sat back down with a sigh, and Lenny drained the washer and fiddled with the setting, filling it with new water.

“You live two inches away and you don’t gotta stay here,” he pointed out.

“So?” Laverne said.

“So why ain’t you leaving?” he asked, dumping his dirty jeans and teeshirts into the washer, and dumping detergent in before closing the lid. The machine roared, and began to spin.

“Nothing,” Laverne said. “I just like spending time with you, that’s all.”

Lenny smiled. He didn’t push his luck and ask her to make out with him.

He sat beside her in the warm basement, on a Friday night, until Shirley came looking for them.


	3. Summer

Lenny was relaxing in a nice, cool metal tub filled with chocolate pudding. It was about the only way to get comfortable on a day like this, when temperatures soared to over ninety, and all he and Squiggy had to cool themselves down with were a couple of electric fans. 

Part of him was a little panicked. He was midway through the year, and he still didn’t have any real romantic prospects – no one to share a New Year’s Eve kiss with. But he was playing more music, doing more little gigs on the weekends. Life was taking on a new, different shape, and he was trying a little more, feeling more and trying to grasp more than just taking whatever came his way.

Then, without warning, the apartment door flew open. “Lenny!” Laverne yelled, and suddenly he was being yanked free of the pudding mess, slipping and sliding as he almost collided with the floor. He came up spitting chocolate, his brow quirked in confusion. He turned his glare on Laverne, and tried not to notice that she was wearing her pale purple bikini top and denim cut-offs. For the first time, he was too confused and mad to be aroused.

“Whatt’d you do that for?!” he snapped. “Is the building on fire again?” He wanted to hide behind a chair so she couldn’t make fun of his swim trunks, but there wasn’t time.

“I came in to give Squig back this cologne,” she said, holding out the bottle of pheromone cologne Lenny’s best friend had bought in the mail, which Laverne had borrowed out of desperation for her latest hot date. “And I looked down and I thought you were drowning!”

“I wasn’t drowning, I was soaking!” Lenny explained.

“Oh,” she said, clearly embarrassed. “I’m not gonna ask.”

“So uh…I guess it didn’t work on Bobby, huh?” she glared at him. That was enough of an answer. “Sorry,” he said.

“It’s all right,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Things happen.” 

Laverne shrugged, looked a little downcast. Lenny reached for her shoulder and realized too late he’d just besmirched her with chocolately fingerprints. She gasped in disgust, but then shook off his touch. “I’m fine, Len.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “You know, you should take a pudding bath…”

“Len!” Her tone took on a warning note. 

“What, you don’t gotta do it naked!” he said, but his eyes went bright and hopeful. “Unless you want to?” She growled and raised a fist. “I was joking!” he said quickly. 

“Why do you sit around in pudding, anyway?” she asked, eyeballing the tin tub.

“Because it’s cool and calming, and it smells nice,” he said. “And I don’t even have to share it with Squig.”

“Wow. You’re really living in the Ritz there, Len.”

“Make fun of me all you want,” he said, stepping back into the tub and sitting down slowly into the pudding goo, groaning in satisfaction as the coolness. “But I ain’t going downstairs to an apartment with one fan and no car to get you to the pool to cool off.”

Laverne stopped, hesitating at Lenny’s words. He sighed, as if he were enjoying the best and deepest mud bath at an exclusive spa. Then she rolled her eyes, and her hands went to the buttons holding her fly closed.

Lenny had to bite his palm. He may have been “just” her friend – and friends might be forever – but he would always look at her and see the hottest woman on the planet. She snorted, then took off the cut-offs and set them on his dining room table. Very cautiously she stuck her foot into the pudding.

“I’m gonna regret this,” she said, the words not at all a question. Then she eased herself down into the opposite end of the tub, letting herself sink into it up to her chin. She let out a surprised groan. “It’s so cool.”

“Told you,” Lenny replied. 

“Okay, so you were right about something. For once.” She stuck out her tongue and settled down; her knees folded up and planted between his. They relaxed for a few minutes, and Lenny let peace fill his mind.

Then Laverne spoke. “I knew it wasn’t going to work with me and Bobby,” she admitted. 

“Why?” Lenny wondered.

“Because…” she frowned, then sighed. “I was just trying to replace Randy.”

Lenny frowned, and placed what he hoped was a comforting hand against her knee. She didn’t shrug his touch off. “I’m still sorry that happened,” he said. Part of him would always be haunted by the fact that he’d watched Randy go to his death. He hadn’t directly seen him die, or his body after, but everyone watching the fire had known a young, courageous man had gone to his death that night.

“Len, you couldn’t’ve stopped it.”

“I should’ve,” he said stubbornly. 

“Randy had been through hundreds of fires,” she reminded him. “How do you think you could’ve helped if he couldn’t help himself?”

Lenny sighed. “I dunno. But I liked him, Laverne. If you had to marry any guy…” She winced. Under the pudding, he took her hand. “If you had to marry any other guy but me, I would’ve been so happy for you if it was him.”

She squeezed his hands. “Thanks, Len.” Their hands lingered in a companionable manner, before she landed her hand against her knee. 

“I never thanked you for coming to tell me that day.”

“Eh, it was nothing.”

“Aww,” she slapped his chest with a pudding-coated hand.

He splashed her lightly with the pudding, which just encouraged her to splash him back. Soon they were frothing up the tub, making each other laugh, until he lunged toward her and sloshed pudding right over her head.

He didn’t remember which of them got their arms around the other, or how she ended up between his legs. But their eyes met. And then his lips were on hers.

She tasted like chocolate and Pepsi, and she didn’t push him away. Her arms went around his neck and his pressed flat to the middle of her back. He forgot, for a moment, how to do anything but breathe and hold her.

Then Laverne pulled away. “Len,” she said – a soft wheeze of a word, one that tickled his ear but kept him from letting go. She placed her palm against his chest and slid away. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” he whined.

She stood up carefully. “It ain’t fair to you. I won’t do what I did to Bobby.”

He would’ve crawled through a landmine of broken glass to have Laverne do to him what she did with Bobby. “But…”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I gotta go.”

Lenny sat in his pudding, watching her leave, tracking careless chocolate footprints down the hallway. He stayed there until the sun began to set and the pudding to stink, but his heart was in the basement, with a tall, pudding-coated girl.


	4. Fall

Lenny burrowed closer to the warm, soft woman in his arms. He crossed his fingers and hoped she wouldn’t wake up yet. When she woke up she’d probably resent what she’d done when her heart had been bruised.

He had a feeling his was about to be smashed in half.

Had he taken advantage of her? Lenny mentally rewound the last ten hours of his life – went back to the big surprise party her Pop had thrown. The thing that had driven Laverne to comfort, and into his arms…

*** 

_”Ain’t it wonderful news, Muffin?” Frank asked. Lenny gave Frank a big smile and finished off his slice of pizza. Frank and Mrs. B were overjoyed about their announcement, visibly glowing. An old war buddy of Frank’s had offered him the opportunity to invest in a fresh branch of his Cowboy Bills western restaurant franchise in California. Edna was going to go with him to help him manage the place, and together they were going to make a bundle – so they hoped - in a much warmer climate than Milwaukee._

_Laverne swallowed her beer and gave him a flat smile. “Yeah, Pop. I’m real happy for you. It’s exciting, getting to be near celebrities.”_

_“Yes,” Shirley said, between nibbles of her pizza. “I for one hope you’ll tell that Bobby Darin to keep treating Sandra Dee right.”_

_“I’ll keep it in mind,” Frank said, not unkindly. “And I’ll also be keeping the place in the family.”_

_Laverne smiled. “It was nice of you to give the Pizza Bowl to Anthony.” But Lenny could see the bitterness in her eyes – she’d failed again at being the son he’d wanted, and he’d failed to consider that Laverne might want to take the place over – or maybe the disaster they’d all made out of Dead Laslo’s Place had convinced him to call on her cousin instead._

_“You can have a nice restaurant like this someday! When you get married!” Frank trumpeted. But he smiled and squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll get ya more beer.” When Laverne sank down in her chair, Lenny patted her shoulder._

_“You wanna dance, Laverne?” Lenny asked. He’d finished off his beer and pizza and he couldn’t think of anything he wanted to do more than spend the night with her. The jukebox was playing the Madison and Shirley, after giving Laverne a comforting squeeze, got up to dance it with Carmine._

_“Uh…Len, do you even know how to Madison?” Laverne asked. He wondered if she was thinking of the millions of times she’d tried and failed to teach him how to do a fast dance._

_“Are you kidding? I’m the king of Madison street!” He wiggled his hips and then his legs (which only buckled a little). During the dance that followed, he only managed to slightly bruise her shins and ankles._

_When they sat down again, Squiggy tapped his shoulder. Francine was hanging off his arm, and his face was dotted over with lipstick kisses. “Lenny,” he said, gesturing toward his date, the universal sign of **take off for the night.** Lenny nodded and smiled and waved, then groaned. “Squig and Francine are going home together.”_

_Laverne’s nose wrinkled. “You’re gonna go off to the gutter again?”_

_“If I’ve gotta,” he sighed. Then he threw Laverne a look and she played with a dusty bit of pizza crust. “You and your pop need someone to help clean up tonight?”_

_“We’ll pay you if you stick around,” she said._

_He’d’ve done it for free, were he being honest with himself. “Aww, thanks,” he said. And when Carmine walked Shirley home and Francine and Squiggy departed the restaurant for the boy’s place, the four of them got to work cleaning up. Frank started mopping the floor, Laverne did the dishes, Edna started refilling the condiments and Lenny took care of the men’s room, then polished counters and tables._

_Laverne was distant and quieter than normal as they worked together. He watched her say goodbye to Edna and her Pop. Then she went to grab her coat, and he helped her slide it on. “Can I walk you home?” he asked._

_“Sure,” she said. And, when they were out of earshot of her father, she said, “You can sleep on the couch again.”_

_“Aww, thanks,” Lenny said happily. The October breeze was cool, but not devastatingly so. Red-crowned trees lined the pavement, straggly and sunbeaten, as they walked side-by-side down the block and back to Knapp Street._

_“I’m sorry,” he said suddenly._

_“Why?” she said, and there was a sharp edge to her tone that made him wince._

_“’Cause your Pop gave the restaurant to Anthony. ‘Cause he’s going away. I mean, I dunno how our new landlord will be, but Mrs. B was always so good to us, y’know? And whenever things got too bad, your Pop always helped us out.”_

_Laverne sighed. “I’m twenty-seven years old,” she told him. “I don’t like having to hang on him for help all the time.”_

_“But?” he asked knowingly._

_“But,” she admitted. “The only reason me and Shirl’ve made it some weeks is ‘cause he’s loaned us money.” She kicked at a stray bottle of Shotz someone had abandoned by the curb and it spun a circle on its rounded side before colliding with a sewer grate. “I can’t call him in the middle of the night no more for help. I don’t have nobody to help with the plumbing or if the oven or fridge breaks down…”_

_“I’ll help,” Lenny said. “I’ll even teach you.”_

_She patted his arm. “No offense, Len, but the last time you tried to fix our sink we lost a set of dishes and Shirley’s favorite fork.”_

_“Hey, I ain’t that dumb when it comes to plumbing stuff. And I walked through thigh-high sewage for you,” he reminded her. Laverne winced._

_“Yeah,” she shook her head. Again, she felt distant, with none of the usual storminess that accompanied her anger at the unjustness of the universe._

_So he reached out for her shoulder and squeezed it. “We’ll take care of each other, okay?” he said._

_She shot him one of those beautiful, rare smiles of hers, her green irises swimming in moonlight-highlighted paleness. “Thanks, Len.”_

_Then they were at the front door, and he automatically followed her downstairs. But to their mutual surprise, the apartment was empty. Lenny waited on the couch while Laverne checked the bedroom, the bathroom, but Shirley was nowhere to be found._

_She came back with a spare pillow and blanket – familiar ones, the green issued army blanket that Lenny had huddled under while writing that song so many months ago – for Lenny to use. “I dunno where they are,” Laverne worried._

_“It’s probably no big deal. Maybe Shirl and Carmine….” He paused, pointed at the ceiling. Shirley had gone home with Carmine hours before, after all, and she had not checked in at the apartment. Crime wasn’t so high on Knapp Street that they’d been kidnapped – maybe the universe had finally cut Carmine a little bit of slack._

_Laverne rolled her eyes, elbowed him. “Len! Come on, it’s Shirl. If she and Carmine’re doing anything at all, they’re having candy apples and watching the stars.”_

_“Oh,” Lenny said. Then he shrugged off his jacket and started pulling off his motorcycle boots. He wished suddenly that he’d brought his guitar with him – some kind of barrier between himself and Laverne and the yawning anxiety of the moment. Laverne sat down with a huff._

_“She coulda left a note,” Laverne grumbled. “And every time I go out with a date I get ‘Laverne, what are the neighbors gonna think if they see you sneaking in through the skylight?” He frowned in confusion at that statement and Laverne pointed behind her to the two tiny, high windows at street level. “That’s what Shirl calls it. But she’s allowed to spend all night out with Carmine without telling me nothing! I’m tired of people not thinking about me!” Laverne snapped. “My Pop – going all the way across the country when I need him! And Edna, leaving us all alone…Shirl – she calls ME selfish!”_

_Lenny sat by, listening to her very DeFazioish rant, occasionally making sympathetic noises. He wanted to say that he’d always thought of her – though he’d never regularly put her first in his life, to his lasting shame. Squiggy, sure, and probably too often. Sometimes she did - he’d sacrificed nights for favors, spent time with her so she wouldn’t be lonely. He came last, even with himself._

_“So whatt’re you gonna do to change it?” Lenny asked. The question made her stop ranting and turn her head to stare at him._

_“Huh?” she asked._

_“Whatcha gonna do to change it?” Lenny asked._

_She snorted. “I’ll just take whatever comes my way and deal with it.” He raised an eyebrow at the declaration. “Len,” she explained very patiently, as if he were a child, “It’s like I told Dr. Gentry…”_

_“The shrink from the brewery?” Lenny asked._

_“Yeah. I’m an adjuster,” she said. “Bad stuff comes my way and I adjust to it. Pop’ll move, I’ll be angry with him for awhile, and I’ll deal with it. Shirl will come home and tell me she and Carmine necked a little at the park, and I’ll get over it. I don’t have to **do** anything.”_

_“Why should you do that, Laverne? A girl like you don’t need to,” Lenny said. “You can do whatever you wanna with your life, be with anybody, go anywhere, and take care of yourself. Guys like me? We get what we deserve.”_

_She frowned at his statement. “Hey, I happen to think you deserve nice things, Len…”_

_“…I’m a real sweet guy,” he said, and couldn’t keep the contempt out of his voice. He hated fighting with Laverne, but couldn’t help himself tonight. The whole world was changing._

_“You are,” she said and squeezed his shoulder. “When are you gonna start believing that about yourself?”_

_He sighed. “It’d be even nicer if other people believed it too.”_

_“Len,” she tisked him. “You’ll find the right girl someday.”_

_His fingertips cupped her chin, and as the alarm bells in the back of his head peeled a warning, he said her name, and inclined his lips toward hers._

_She was going to punch him. Right in the face. It was a result he should anticipate after years of being beaten up by girls for going too far and misreading signals. But instead, Laverne’s arms came around his shoulders. One of her hands landed on his head, then his right shoulder. The other pressed against his torso. The push he anticipated never came. She pulled him closer._

_Laverne DeFazio was still the best kisser Lenny had ever laid his lips upon. So good that he had to remind himself to breath between pecks, to take a break, He wanted the kiss to last forever, but she broke it and sat back._

_“I just wanna be with someone familiar,” she said softly. “I don’t wanna be alone tonight.”_

_“I won’t be any further away then the couch…” he started saying. Then she started unbuttoning her blouse._

_“Woah,” Lenny said immediately. He turned around, hid his eyes. “You don’t gotta do this if you don’t wanna, Laverne.”_

_“I want to.” He heard fabric hit the floor. Then a hand grabbed his forearm and flipped him around, and pressed his palm to her chest. It landed on her collarbone, but he still gasped. “I want you.”_

_She yanked him to her by the front of his teeshirt._

_***_

_They ended up in her bedroom, on top of Shirley’s bed, with Lenny’s legs dangling over the end of it. The sex had been more like a very long heavy petting session intended to comfort the both of them - with him penetrating her face-to-face, one of her legs thrown up over his hips and their mouths glued together, kisses dusting over warm flesh, cutting off the fall chill, hands holding and stroking. Lenny hadn’t even known that they could do it like that, but leave it to Laverne to surprise him._

_He wouldn’t let himself come until she did, and that required help from her fingertips. Lenny didn’t mind – the sweet-agonized expression on her face and the way she clutched him closer made it worth every second._

_It drove him right over the edge of reason. When he came he dimly heard her gasp, then let out a cry of dismay as she pulled him free of her sex. But her hand was warm around him, and she stroked him through the peak of it, holding him even afterward, not caring that they were both bedecked with china-white strands of his orgasm. When she rubbed it into the soft skin of her belly and chest, he shuddered and stiffened all over again._

_When Lenny got his breath back, he thought to complain, and then realized why she’d done it. “Sorry,” he panted, feeling bad for failing to protect her, and then envisioning with guilty joy Laverne in a hospital bed, holding his son in her arms._

_She shook her head, relaxing against him. “It should be fine.” He nodded, gave in, too peaceful and filled with happy dreams to complain. “Can you stay?” she asked._

_“Uh…what about Shirl?” he asked._

_“It’s after two, Len,” Laverne said. “Wherever she and Carmine are right now, they’re not coming back here tonight.”_

_That was risky, really risky – but he’d already taken a lot of risks tonight. As he pulled the quilt up over their shoulders, he decided that they’d worry about the specifics tomorrow._

*** 

It was tomorrow, but Lenny didn’t want to confront the present, even as Laverne sat up beside him and on the edge of the bed. He lay still as she used the bathroom, then kept his eyes closed a she rummaged around in the closet.

But he never could take lying still for very long. Lenny opened his eyelids a crack, watching her move around the room. The curve of her breast obscured by a bra. A muscled stomach covered by an angora sweater. The thighs he’d always dream of encased in tight blue jeans. The hiney she’d always complained was too big, staring him right in the face as she bent over to retrieve her sneakers from under her own bed.

He resisted his impulse, which was to bend forward and dig his teeth into the cheeks in front of him. Instead he pretended to sleep until he heard Laverne hover over him, with a muffled “aww.”

“Len,” she said clearly. When he didn’t move, she shook him. “Lenny, you gotta get up! Shirl…”

He snorted, feigned wakefulness. “Sorry!” he chirped out. 

Lenny proceeded to make a big show of finding his boxers and putting them on. Mid-gesture, she stopped him, and he couldn’t have felt more awkward standing there mostly naked while she was fully clothed. They regarded each other quietly. Her mascara had settled into caked rivulets around her eyes. Her hair was all messy. Her eyes were a little bloodshot from their shared long night.

She was incredibly beautiful.

“Laverne,” he started to say, without having any idea what he really wanted to proclaim, other than his love for her. 

“We’ve gotta talk about this,” she said. “Sometime soon. Not now.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But, Shirl’s probably gonna be home soon…” She trailed off at the sound of a knock. “No!”

“No!” Lenny echoed her.

"Laverne," Shirley called. "Would you please let me into the apartment? I can't find the spare!"

“Shirley!” 

“I heard!” Lenny leapt into his jeans and belted them, then rushed into the living room. He had his head up the bottom of his teeshirt and one boot on when Shirley came into the apartment.

“THERE we are. Why did you move the key to the other side of the mat? I’m so sorry, Laverne! I forgot my keyring and Carmine let me sleep on his sofa…” She trailed off at the sight of Lenny in clear dishabille. 

But then again, Shirley didn’t look exactly pristine herself. For one, her sweater was on backward. For another, her shoes were on the wrong feet. For a third, she didn’t have her purse.

Peeking out the neckhole, Lenny watched Shirley flush at the sight of Lenny standing there in his jeans without his teeshirt fully on. He instinctively and ridiculously tried to cover his nipples, as if she were witnessing something obscene, but after a minute of no one moving had the confidence to pull the shirt over his body, then grab the other boot, then his jacket. They eyed each other like prize fighters as Lenny mounted the stairs and Shirley descended them. 

“You’re up awfully early."

"Yeah," Lenny explained. "Laverne did me a favor last night." He had a flash of her teasing his cock with her tongue and had to suppress his reaction. 

"How very kind of her," Shirley said, an eyebrow arched. "Well, the sun’s shining and there’s a fresh new day outside, Lenny,” she said. "I hope you enjoy it."

“It’s a new world, Shirley Feeney,” Lenny said, and closed the door. "I hope you enjoy that!"


	5. New Year's Eve, 1964

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be an epilogue chapter for this one soon, but this finishes up the main plotline!

“All right, three beers, seven straws.” Anthony DeFazio looked at the crowded table where his cousin sat with her boyfriend, her best friend and his former crush Shirley, her best friend’s boyfriend Carmine, and Squiggy with two women he’d never seen before that day. Anthony shook his head and passed around the glasses, not bothering to ask questions.

Lenny was, on one end, kind of glad that Anthony didn’t ask too many questions – how could he ever answer them, anyway? With Mr. DeFazio all the way across the country they didn’t have to smile and lie in his presence, and as far as he knew she and Lenny were having innocent movie dates that ended with chaste kisses and not wild home runs in the front seat of his truck or their empty apartments.

Frank also didn’t know that the entire bottlecapping line had been fired this afternoon, given two week’s notice to make way for automation. Lenny and Squiggy, meanwhile, had gotten a raise – which was why Squiggy had given up on chasing a free three-way and bought an expensive date with two girls from the Bradstreet Burlesque house. Lenny, meanwhile, kept offering Laverne money behind Squiggy’s back, which she continually rejected.

“Here you go, Len,” she said, plunking his straw into the mug. Lenny grinned and picked it up, and together they sipped the brew down. They soaked up the booze with more pizza and danced together – carefully, though Lenny was getting better at it.

When the night fell, Carmine and Shirley huddled in a corner of the room and exchanged gifts (a tradition of theirs, and an occurrence that was becoming more and more regular these days – Lenny had no idea what had occurred in Carmine’s apartment, but Laverne refused to gossip about it with him), and Squiggy left with his dates without telling Lenny goodbye. He and Laverne walked over to the lanes and sat among the clatter, which weirdly made talking easier.

She looked magnificent in her new pink dress – but Lenny could tell from her mood and how she held herself that something was going on. He was half-ready to be dumped as the hour turned over, getting closer to midnight.

“Len,” she said suddenly, two frames and three more beers later. 

He cringed. “Do you gotta dump me before New Year’s? Can’t I just get a kiss before the kiss off?”

Her brow furrowed. “Len, whatt’re you talking about?”

“Nothing,” he said. “You had that ‘I got bad news’ look on your face.”

She smiled. “You big dope. I have news, and it’s good news, but I don’t know if you think it’s good news.”

That contradiction made Lenny feel dizzy. “Uh…Maybe you should just spit it out, Laverne?” he suggested.

She sighed. “All right. Remember when I went to Chicago, to audition for _West Side Story_?”

“Yep, tapdancing, fruit salad hat, getting shot down by chorus girls, I remember,” Lenny said. 

She opened her little clutch purse and showed Lenny a very official looking piece of paper. “Well, they remembered me. I guess the girl I practiced with, Mickey, is heading up their New York company.”

He scanned the page before him. “Laverne, this says they’re offering you a part in the chorus!”

“With a chance at supporting parts! It’s off-off-off Broadway,” Laverne said excitedly, “but it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to dancing on the stage for money. I don’t got a job keeping me in Milwaukee, and this’ll pay a little more than what I made on the line…”

“…but going means you’d have to leave,” Lenny said. He’d seen the light in her eyes. How could he crush the dreams dancing there?

He turned away, and she automatically stroked the back of his neck, his shoulders. “I’ll call every day. I’ll write every week…” she vowed. Then the idea hit him like a lightning bolt.

“Do you got anyone to live with over there?” he said.

She shrugged. “I was thinking about moving in with my grandma, if Shirl doesn’t want to come.”

In the doorway, Shirley started calling their names, telling everyone in the alley that the countdown to 1965 had begun.

Lenny turned Laverne around and clasped her hands in his grip. “There’s a lot a band can do in New York. Heck, even New Jersey,” Lenny said. “I mean, it’s the cradle of music!”

She gave him a smile – tears bubbling over. “There is?”

_10_

“Yeah,” Lenny said. “My Pop lives in Secaucus now…”

“…Yeah, I remembered that,” Laverne said.

_9!_

“…And he could probably help us look for a good place. We could get a little studio- Squig could have his own little cot in the living room. I can drive trucks anywhere, Laverne, but there’s only one you, and..."

_8_

She cut him off by cupping his cheek. “But what about your raise?”

“Squig’ll be mad,” Lenny said, “But we can probably make as much money in New York. And I like you way more than being rich.”

_7!_

Laverne shook her head. “And you won’t regret it?”

_6!_

“Nope. Not for a second.”

_5!_

“Whattya say, Laverne?” He asked. “I’ll go with you, if you let me.”

_4!_

She seems to come to him in slow motion – an arm around his neck, the other around his back.

_3!_

…And her lips brushing his….

_2!_

And her yes-without-a-yes: a perfect kiss, pressed hungrily against his lips.  
_1!_  
Covered in confetti and streamers, they embraced and held tight to each other, and a new year dawned.


End file.
